SAVE THE DATE: The Clark County Public Art Committee will host Christian Gaines and Jori Bennett from ArtPrize to introduce their "open, independently organized international art competition". Gaines and Bennett will talk about their non-profit and how to have an event for the region. The chat will be Thursday, February 11, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Winchester Cultural Center. It is free and open to the public.
​Clark County (NV) / Visual Arts

LAST CALL: The closing reception of "The Life Artistic with Wes Anderson," the group show featuring art inspired by the films of Wes Anderson, is really a goodbye and thank-you from Blackbird Studios. The gallery's "farewell event" starts at 7 p.m. on January 15.

BELIEVE IN PUBLIC ART: Reno purchased the "Believe" sculpture for $70,000 from Burning Man artists Jeff Schomberg and Laura Kimpton, and plan to have it installed next spring after the construction of the Virginia Street Bridge is completed. To pad the theme on a dedication day officials played "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. "Believe" is one of 170 works acquired by Reno since the 1992 ordinance requiring new city parks and buildings to be fitted with public art. Five of those pieces made their debut at Burning Man I KUNR + RGJ

RED AND BLUE STATE OF MIND: Las Vegas multi-media artist Diane Bush is leading a political party of invited artists for "Mug Shots". The group show kicks off her election art project "DISHING IT OUT 2016", a bipartisan reflection on political candidates. Voter registration will be on site in partnership with Rock the Vote. Mug Shots opens 6 p.m. Thursday, January 21 at Brett Wesley Gallery (1025 S 1st St, Ste 150).

PREVIOUS POLITICS: An 8-foot mural of Hillary Clinton was painted at the local labor union and presented to the candidate when she visited Las Vegas last October. "The black and gold rendering, done in the colors of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, shocked Hillary when she emerged from a brief press conference into the hallway, out of view of the press," wrote Daily Mail UK on Clinton's reaction to her large-scale likeness.

NEW YEARS DAY: Rose Parade viewers saw sky writers tag the Pasadena skies with “America is Great! Trump is Disgusting” and“AnybodybutTrump.us” above the parade route. "Air Sign, an aerial advertising company took credit for creating the sky writing on Twitter," reported the Pasadena Star. Following the Rose Parade was an alternative parade supporting Bernie Sanders, and featured a large puppet costume by Los Angeles-based Alex Schaefer. "I couldn't really tell from inside ‪‎BigBernie‬," said ​Schaefer, who wore his animated sculpture. "But we had a huge gathering come to march and lots of cheers from the audience."

EQUAL TIME: Sabo, the street artist who skews anyone on the left, latched on to the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz with a business partnership, reported Texas Tribune in September. The street artist "first gained notoriety in 2014, when he put up posters around Los Angeles portraying Cruz’s head atop a shirtless, muscular, tattooed torso, a cigarette dangling from his lips." Cruz supporters began bringing the image to campaign events. Then candidate himself launched a “Sabo Gear” section to his campaign website. I Texas Tribune